Honey bees play a critical role in Canadian agriculture and nationally beekeepers have lost more than a quarter of their colonies each winter since 2006-07. Amro Zayed of York University and Leonard Foster of University of British Columbia are leading a project to develop tools to breed disease-resistant bees. This project will develop genomics and proteomics tools to provide markers to selectively breed 12 economically valuable traits for queens. This will enable beekeepers to quickly and cost- effectively breed healthy, disease-resistant, productive honey bee colonies that are better able to survive Canadian winters. The project, led by Genome British Columbia and Ontario Genomics was awarded $7.3M through Genome Canada’s 2014 Large-Scale Applied Research Project Competition: Genomics and Feeding the Future.
For more information, see Genome BC News Release and York University Press Release.